Embarkation was well organised. The check in process and ticketing system to get on board the ship worked very well. We discovered later in the cruise that there were 2150 passengers on board, which is interesting noting that the publish capacity of the ship is 1950 persons. This may explain some of the issues we encountered in the cruise.

We elected the late sitting dining options as we have many times before. This was a mistake. For the first three nights of the cruise there was up to a 25 minute delay to the entry time to the dining room. Our meal and wine waiter did a great job but it was obvious that they had too many tables to service. We were on a table of 8. There were delays in getting our menus, and water was not provided until well into the meal. Further, if you were lucky enough to attract the wine waiter's attention to order some wine, there was a high probability that you would not get your wine until the main course or later.

All of these dining delays resulted in us missing the entertainment. The entertainment program started at 9:45pm, but early in the cruise we did not receive our deserts until 10:00 pm at the earliest. Furthermore, some of the activities (eg the marriage game) were only programmed during the late dining period. Clearly early diners had the advantage in terms of entertainment options. Read more